Ann Melbourne keeps her emotions in check until the moment she recalls the final thing her son, Blake, said to her.

Then a decade of pain floods out in a moment of tears.

“I remember his last words and they’re why I worry because I never wanted him to know he was going to die,” Ann says.

“He said, ‘Don’t leave me, Mum’. That was the last thing he said to me apart from, ‘I love you’.

Advertisement

“I said, ‘I’ll never leave you, darling’.

“And that’s what I say to him sometimes to him now — ‘I promised I’d never leave you but you left me’ and that’s so hard because he should still be here.

“He was so strong. He was perfect.”

Blake Melbourne died 10 years ago today, leaving a family forever changed by grief and a football club stunned by the unexpected loss of one of their brightest young stars.

Today, Ann, Blake’s father Carlton and his younger brothers, Max and Jamie, will remember a son and a sibling while West Bromwich Albion will fall silent to honour a friend and a leader.

Ten years since he succumbed to a rare form of cancer, Blake’s life is a source of both sadness and inspiration.

On September 10, 2011, Max and Jamie Melbourne woke to the news that shook their world.

They had been shielded from the seriousness of Blake’s condition throughout a battle with cancer that lasted for more than a year but on that morning a decade ago they could be protected no longer.

Blake had died in the early hours of the morning, a year to the day after doctors at Birmingham Childen’s Hospital had diagnosed him with peripheral T-cell non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a rare form of cancer for which there was no established course of treatment.

“Jamie woke up first and went to come running in so we didn’t let him in the bedroom and we went and woke Max up,” says Ann.

“I just said to them both that Blake had been taken away by angels. Then we went to the park.”

The last two weeks, as they are every year, have been especially hard for the Melbournes.

It is the time when Ann, Carlton and their two younger sons relive Blake’s final days — the period when Blake became noticeably ill and eventually left them, aged just 14.

“After 10 years it still feels just as fresh,” says Ann. “People say it gets easier but it doesn’t.

Advertisement

“You just learn how to cope with it.

“Every day is hard but these two weeks are really hard because you relive the worst moments in your life.”

For much of his illness, Blake had shown few discernable symptoms of a life-threatening condition.

The only initial clue was a small lump in his groin and doctors initially gave him a 98 per cent chance of a full recovery.

By February 2011, after a course of chemotherapy, he was told he was clear of cancer, only for his health to deteriorate from April as the disease returned more aggressively.

“Blake was very quick (on the football pitch),” says Carlton. “No-one went past Blake and if they did he would always catch them up.

“But I remember one occasion when somebody went past him and he struggled.

“I thought at the time maybe he was tired but looking back I now wonder whether that was the first sign that something wasn’t right.”

Briefly, in the late summer of 2011, came a glimmer of hope as the family were tested for their compatibility to be bone marrow donors.

“A week or so later I turned up at the hospital and he was connected to his drip and he came over to me and gave me a massive hug and started crying and said, ‘You’re a match, you’re going to be the one to make me better’,” recalls Max, a full-back now playing for Stevenage on loan from Lincoln.

“Everyone in the family got tested and I was the only match and I remember thinking I was going to be the one to make him feel better.

“But days and weeks went by and he was getting more ill and I could tell the transplant wasn’t going ahead.”

Plans were made for the transplant on September 21 with Albion even providing a computer for Blake to use during a pre-surgery spell in isolation but, tragically, it ended up being the date of his funeral instead.

His white blood cell count never rose high enough for the operation to take place and on September 8, with all possible treatments exhausted, Blake was discharged from hospital to spend his final days at home in Dickens Heath.

Advertisement

“I remember when he came home he had a blue Powerade and some pineapple and got into my bed,” says Ann, who along with Carlton decided not to tell any of the boys that Blake’s condition was now terminal.

“That night we all played Uno and we even had a Chinese, although Blake just had his pineapple.

“On September 9 we were watching ‘Red Or Black’ all sat on the bed and I remember the others all going downstairs.

“I remember wondering how I could get them to talk to him and tell him how important he is without telling them the worst thing in the world was going to happen.

“Then he passed away in the early hours of the morning.”

Mark Harrison, Albion’s then academy manager, found out about Blake’s death a few hours later.

He had sat chatting to his player in his hospital bed until the early hours of September 8, having been told by Ann that Blake’s time was short.

In the aftermath of his death, Harrison had to deliver the news to friends and coaches.

Harrison knew the effect it would have on a club where senior professionals and academy prospects rubbed shoulders in the corridors and where first-team players had donned t-shirts urging Blake to keep fighting in the warm-up for a game against Chelsea less than a month earlier.

“We played Nottingham Forest the next morning at the training ground and I remember finding out about an hour before the game and we decided not to tell anybody before the game,” he recalls.

“We finished the game and then we told all the players and we had to deal with it from there.

“Then I went around the house.”

“My memories of the day are quite hazy,” adds Carlton. “I think that’s my coping mechanism.

“If I think about it too much I can’t cope so I put it to the back of my mind.

“It’s 10 years on but I still struggle and it might sound bad but I have to try to bury it.”

What Carlton has no wish to bury are his fondest memories of his first-born son, even though he admits untangling them from the pain of his final days and weeks can sometimes prove impossible.

Advertisement

“We used to call Blake the golden child,” he smiles. “Everybody loved him.

“The teachers at school loved him. He was good academically but also good at sport.

“Often you get one or the other but Blake was good at both. He was special.”

“At school, he was always someone that had to look after the other children, at football he would always look after newcomers and he would always inspire and encourage other people,” says Ann.

“He was good at so many things and he would always be the lead. If there was a school play with Mary and Joseph he would always be Joseph.

“People say he was a born leader. He had this way of getting people to do things without telling them to do it.

“To me, he was absolutely perfect — kind, considerate, helpful and mature yet funny.

“Adults fell in love with him and kids loved playing with him.

“In my head, he’s still around and he’s still amazing.”

In football, Blake made rapid progress. He briefly trained with the academy at Birmingham City, having been recommended to their scout, Steve Hopcroft, following a junior tournament in Dickens Heath.

When Hopcroft left for Albion shortly afterwards, Blake followed and became captain of a junior team that included future professionals including Tyler Roberts, Izzy Brown, Sam Field, Jerome Sinclair and Kyle Edwards.

When Brown, who is now with Preston, arrived at Albion on trial, Blake went out of his way to help him settle. He has since told relatives it played a huge part in his decision to join the club.

“Blake was a bit of an unusual young boy in the world of football,” says Harrison. “It can be quite a selfish environment because everyone is trying to scale Mount Everest and are focused on that.

“But Blake always had a sense of others. He looked beyond trying to become a professional footballer and looked at the whole experience as something to be enjoyed.

Advertisement

“He had an abundance of potential and definitely would have got a scholarship, there’s no doubt about that.

“How far a player goes after that you can never tell because we’ve all seen how players’ journeys can take different turns.

“But he definitely had the potential to go on and play for the first team, without any doubt.

“He was on the right path.”

Max and Jamie both followed their older brother into the Albion academy despite having little prior interest in a career in football. They were asked to train with Albion because they were related to Blake.

Max has now played professionally for Lincoln, Walsall and Stevenage among others while until a recent injury Jamie was with Stoke’s academy.

“I owe everything I’ve got and everything I will hopefully do in the future to Blake,” says Max, who was 12 when his brother died.

“I know a lot of people say stuff like that but I genuinely wouldn’t be playing football if it wasn’t for Blake playing to such a good standard.

“I think about him all the time when I’m playing football. He’s definitely the last thought when I cross the line before a game.

“But more than anything it’s when times get tough, whether it’s an injury or I’m not playing or things get difficult I know he’s always with me.

“When I’m playing or training I can talk to him and ask him a question and I know he’s always on my side.”

Jamie, who was eight at the time, has a permanent tribute to Blake that takes the form of a tattoo that fills most of his left arm.

It features Blake’s name, images of the doves that appeared at his funeral, Jamie’s hands in prayer — “I’m not big on that but when I do, I speak to Blake” — a stairway to heaven and the words Blake posted when he was told initially that he had beaten cancer.

It read: “Life isn’t easy but things happen for a reason. You find out who your real friends are and meet lovely people along your journey. Enjoy life because it’s only short.”

Albion’s training ground will fall silent twice today in memory of Blake.

Advertisement

Most of the players and staff who knew him have moved on but the tree that was planted in his memory remains in full sight of academy players as they walk to their training pitches.

The accompanying plaque describes Blake as “a role model to us all”.

Academy players and staff will hold a ceremony at the tree this morning to remember Blake while first-team players, who are training in the afternoon ahead of tomorrow’s game against Millwall, will pause separately at 3pm.

Carlton is considering driving to the training ground to take part while Ann and Jamie are planning to travel to London to be with Max as he prepares to face Sutton United.

Floral and balloon tributes will, in all likelihood, be attached to the posts in Dickens Heath known locally as “Blake’s goal” at the park where Ann used to take a garden chair to save her legs, such were the hours Blake and his brothers spent playing.

If history is any guide then Izzy Brown, who has his own tattoo in tribute to his late friend, will post on social media, ensuring Blake’s memory is kept alive.

Rest easy my boy, love you and miss you so much! Happy birthday brother♥️♥️

— Isaiah Brown (@izzyjaybrown) December 29, 2020

The Preston midfielder marks Blake’s birthday and today’s anniversary most years.

9 years today, feels like yesterday! I love & miss you brother, keep shining your light down on us💔❤️

— Isaiah Brown (@izzyjaybrown) September 10, 2020

Other players have been known to post, too, while before he left Albion for Aston Villa, Harrison would routinely email players and staff on such occasions to remind them of Blake.

The 10th anniversary of his death will be a sombre, sad, painful occasion — but perhaps an inspiring one, too.

“I still have the order of service from his funeral on my office desk at Villa along with his photo,” says Harrison, who instigated an annual memorial day at Albion to raise funds for Cancer Research.

Advertisement

“I understand why a 10-year anniversary would have some added poignance but for me every year is the same and also his birthday on December 29 and every day.

“That’s why I’ve got his photo and the order of service in my office, so there’s not a day goes by when I don’t remember him.”

“This week is always the worst week because it feels so fresh in my mind,” says Ann.

“It always feels like it’s yesterday and I can’t believe it’s been 10 years because the pain doesn’t ever go away.

“I talk to Blake every night. We had a star for Blake up in the sky and I always pray for him to help my boys because I know that’s what he would do if he was here.

“I love the fact so many people remember him. The boys will tell me, ‘So and so put out a message’ or ‘This person said this’ and it is so lovely that they remember him because it’s so easy for kids to get on with their life now.

“I know how special Blake was but to know he’s had this massive impact on other people makes me so proud.

“He was this incredible child and 10 years on people are still inspired by him.”

(Top photo: Carlton Melbourne and Ann Melbourne)